Individual Details

Marriage

In 1862 Mr. Davol married Mary E. Turner, daughter of Captain Joseph and Mary A. (Simmons) Turner. Mrs. Davol is a lineal descendant of Catain William Turner of King Philip's War fame. They were the parents of two sons: George A. Davol, the elder, died in 1913, leaving one son, Walter L. Davol; Charles Joseph, the younger, is president, treasurer and general manager of the Davol Rubber Company.

Event

He was educated in the schools of Warren, and later attended high school in Brooklyn, N. Y., to which city his parents removed during his boyhood. At the age of sixteen years he entered the employ of a wholesale dry goods house in New York City. Having shown a decided business talent, he was successively promoted, and shortly prior to his return to Providence held a position of importance with the firm. Soon after, he removed with his family to Providence. Here he became interested in the rubber industry, foreseeing the great possibilities of the business, then in the early stages of development. For some years he devoted much time to experimenting and succeeded in evolving many successful formulas. In 1870 he deemed the time ripe for the beginning of his venture, and having patented and copyrighted his inventions, he began the manufacture of rubber goods on a small scale, not far from the site of the present great plant. The enterprise was a success from the very outset, and grew rapidly, keeping pace with the ever increasing demand for rubber products. Joseph Davol foresaw early the great field which was opened by the drug trade, and the needs of the surgical and dental professions, and limited the product of the firm largely to this line in the early days. He later began the manufacture of stationers' articles and other allied lines. He was the pioneer in a field hitherto exclusively controlled by foreign manufacturers, but within a short period, through the uniform excellence and impeccable quality of his products, successfully met foreign competition, and placed the product of the Davol Rubber Company at the head of the industry. The name is now known in every part of the civilized world.

Event

In 1881 the business was incorporated under the name of the Davol Rubber Company, with Joseph Davol as president, treasurer and general manager He remained the active head of the organization until his death, dictating its policies, and laying the foundations for still greater expansion after his demise. He was also an active factor in numerous commercial and financial enterprises, and was a director in the Industrial Trust Company and the Phoenix National Bank of Providence. He was a member of several of the leading clubs of the city.

Death

Joseph Davol died at his home in Providence, July 5, 1909, in his seventy-third year. His name stands out notably in the history of the rubber industry in New England. For thirty-five years he was intimately connected with the manufacture of rubber as one of the captains of the industry. He was not only a man of considerable inventive genius, but he was an executive and an organizer of more than ordinary talent, to which fact the Davol Rubber Company, one of the greatest establishments of its kind in the world, testifies. Providence has profited by his connection with its business interests, and the reputation and standing of the city as a commercial and manufacturing center has been greatly enhanced by the operation of the Davol Rubber Company. In this age of manufactured rubber goods in every conceivable form, it is difficult to realize that half a century ago the chemistry of rubber was but little understood. Years of experiment and countless sums of money were employed in causing the raw rubber to divulge its secrets. When in 1870 Joseph Davol felt warranted in the beginning of a manufacturing plant, it was a very small and feeble one, strong only in the genius, courage and faith of its founder. The history of all the men who have devoted themselves to the subjugation of raw rubber is a story of hard work, disappointment, privation and often signal failure. But it is also a history of success, fame and recompense. Goodyear but paved the way with the immortal discovery that the sticky, refractory, unmanageable stuff could be tempered, vulcanized and made into water resisting articles. Those who have followed him with their discoveries of the countless ways of washing, breaking, combing with other materials, rolling, pressing, molding and reducing it to any required thickness, shape or size, and to employ it in the thousands of ways in which rubber as a base is now employed, are equally deserving of undying remembrance, as it is to these persevering, unconquerable, investigating, inquisitive men, that the world owes perhaps its greatest industry.